74 Hornet project

Got a neighbor for the Hornet temporarily.  Just brought this home last night and unloaded it this morning.  Weighs dang near as much as the Hornet with the six! 

Quick update.  The home shop machine shop is ready to go.  I have everything on hand to rebuild heads minus a surfacer, but I'll be doing the surface work at the shop I'm going back to work for.  I'll be building custom engines again as well as doing installs.   I'll also be working directly with customers to figure combinations to get them to their performance goals.   Mostly going to do side work for some club customers and people from my old Matco route that want work done. 

Worked on the balancing a bit today.   Evened up the pistons and rods.   Already had everything weighed, but needed to final weight match the rods and pistons to do the final bob calculation.   Ran it up on the balancer and figured out that I'm going to need to add a bit of heavy metal to make the internal balance work.   Not a lot, but some.  Balancing for a 7500 RPM max.  1880 grams total bob which is decent for the 401.  I'll work on it at lunch during the week to get the tungsten into the flanks.   I've put together 4 engines since Jan 1 and I'm working on 2 more right now.  One's a Chevy stroker with AFR heads, and the other is a late model 9.5:1 circle track motor that we're updating for a friend of the shop owner.   Going to have another circle track motor to tear down later this next week for inspection and freshening.   May end up switching it from a high compression 380 incher with the 390 cfm carb rule to a 9.5:1 engine that our shop owner can run at more tracks this year.  Right now his engine is only legal for the touring series he's been running.  Whee!

Backed the car out of the shop this evening, and pulled the hood off.   I wrapped it all up nicely to keep it from getting scratched and set it aside.   Pulled the condenser, water bottle and A/C hoses out of the front.   Had less than an hour to work before we started losing light, so that was it.   Hoping to pull the engine soon.   With the weather getting nicer I'm going to try to get out for an hour or so a few nights a week to get the accessories all disconnected, then I'll pull the motor and trans out on a weekend.   Should get a bit more done tomorrow night and then a bunch one of the weekend days.   Need to run the block down to the shop this weekend also.   Going to be getting more done the next few weeks with the weather finally warming up. 

Pics will be forthcoming as this goes on.   REALLY wanting a running car this year.   May not put the A/C back in the car initially.   I can do that later.   Going to pull the dash and rebuild the HVAC box, so I'll get a heater core and A/C evaporator and install them, then cap the evaporator.  

This thing is going to go down a road this year I hope!

AMC club meeting this morning, then worked at the shop for about 4 hours.   Had a couple things to do and also worked on my 401 crank.   Hauled the block from home, so nearly everything is there for the motor.   Still waiting on BHJ for my lifter bushings.   They should have been here by now.  

Ended up with a two 3/4" slugs on the front counterweight, then a 3/4" on the rear on one side, and two 1/2" shorter slugs a couple inches away where the balancer wanted 60 grams.   Not a lot of heavy metal, just needed 160 grams on one end, 140 on the other divided between 2 locations.   Used the press to install them after drilling and reaming.   They're in with a considerable amount of press fit.  

Cleaned it all off and spun it up with the slugs in it.   Ended up being very close to finished on the rear, and a few grams off on the front near to where the factory balance hole was at.   I'm happy to have moved the correction back onto the counterweight.   Only had to make a small hole to finish it off.   Balanced to less than 1/4 oz/in. for an 1880 bob weight.  Polished the journals, then washed and cleaned the crank and oil passages.   It's all oiled up, bagged and ready to install.

The block needs the lifter bushings done, and then I'll bump a hone through the bores since it sat in sealed engine bags for a year and a half.   Still need to build a valley line for it, but the holes are drilled and tapped. 

Came back to our town and helped a forum member install his 401/727 combo into his drag Gremlin.  The dogs got a walk and a car ride while he and I were working on the car.   Needs a few more things hooked up before we fire it this week.

Went through some boxes at the home shop and found all my AMC 20 parts.   Pulled everything together into one spot so that I can take it to work and press the Moser axles into the bearings and put the thing together.   I'll set preload and backlash there.   I installed the Richmond ratcheting locker into the ring gear housing after removing the spider gears.  I picked up one of the "quiet" lockers 18 months ago and finally got it together this evening.   I was waiting on a decision as to whether or not I was going to install disc brakes or put new large drums on it, because the backing plates are different, and the axles have to have the backing plates on when you press the bearings on.   Decided that the new Bendix drum stuff I already had purchased is the way it's going to go, so I'll put that together this week.

Basically, got a lot of AMC stuff done today!